Difference of American foreign policy during WWII & Vietnam
In the early twentieth century, America experienced big, but different type of wars: Second World War and the Vietnam War. Although in both wars America tried to use its super power to achieve the worlds?f peace, its specific policies and what they got as a result were totally different. One of them got world?fs brilliant reputation, but the other became one of the most hated memories among American. Strategically, however, the U.S. foreign policy after WWI did not basically change: they took neutral position, always only at the beginning. WWII started in 1939 as Germany invaded Poland because of their frustration and humiliation by the Treaty of Versailles, which was also called slave-treaty. Soon, this war expanded through whole Europe, but the U.S. involvement didn?ft occur immediately following the beginning of the war. If the U.S. intervened the war, it broke the Neutrality Act of 1935, which prohibits the U.S. from giving assistance to any nation that is involved in foreign conflicts. Also, the policy called Lend-Lease Act guaranteed that the U.S. stayed out of war. At the beginning of the war, Franklin D. Roosevelt followed that policy, and American national security was not in jeopardy at that moment. On Decembe
From 1957 to 1973, America involved into the Vietnam War. As one of the Allies during the WWII, that was France, was loosing its territory in Vietnam, America took a distance from its controversy because the U.S. didn?ft have any interest at first. Here, again, the U.S. took neutral position at first. When the Communist rebels of North Vietnam, however, launched an attack on the South and Ho Chi Minh proclaimed an independence of France, American people were so scared of Communism by McCarthyism in the 1950?fs that they were willing to do anything to stop Communism. At that time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower used domino theory and said, ?gYou have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly?h (Roark, et al, The American Promise, 734). Therefore, Eisenhower increased the level of supports to the France, or South Vietnam, but tried to avoid military intervention, even when France was being defeated by North Vietnam. This policy still continued at John F. Kennedy?fs administration. He believed that America should take anti-Communist commitment and almost tripled American aids in the South Vietnam. U.S. feared the spread of Communism in Asia, and Kennedy provided economic and military aid to the South to prevent the take over from the North. At this time, this was still a civil war, not officially involved. When he was assassinated in 1963, and Lyndon B. Johnson took over the presidency, things changed dramatically. After the incident of Tonkin Gulf in 1964, he escalated the U.S. involvement in the war. However, there were no clear lines of battle or territory at this war. The America
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Approximate Word count = 1146
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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